[Energy]

There was someone here that had an issue when they went to return a unit to metrum. The current price direct from metrum is also almost $500 more than from hifi heaven.

I agree it would be great to see a comparison bnb with the terminator as well.

I had a Pavane but preferred the Holo Audio Spring for it’s DSD capabilities which made it sound better than PCM when utilizing HQPLAYER’s upsampling feature. If comparing the two on strictly PCM music (without upsampling to DSD) then I’d say that the Pavane was ahead of the Spring by 10%. The Terminator however is a step up from both. It sounds neutral like the Pavane but offers slightly more sense of air and detail. The Spring on the other hand has a denser and more sweet sound to it with the cost of losing an itsy bitsy amount of sound stage. All in all, the lower, midrange, and upper frequencies extend much further on the Pavane than on the Spring and it’s wider stage makes it sound like a great pairing with speakers. The Spring is smaller and intimate which would pair well with headphones (although it does good on smaller speakers like studio monitors too). The Terminator extends even further than the Pavane and has the almost the same denseness as the Spring but not as lively or warm. The Pavane has a better low end than the Spring. It’s neutral but boy does that bass hit hard.

Anyway, kinda weird for me to jump all over the place in sound explanations but that’s the main things I remember or at least was worthy of remembering.

 

[Chopin75]

There was someone here that had an issue when they went to return a unit to metrum. The current price direct from metrum is also almost $500 more than from hifi heaven.

I agree it would be great to see a comparison bnb with the terminator as well.

So it is actually more expensive to buy from the actual company than from a retail sales ? Does not make any sense. Sure one can bargain to price match HiFi Heaven. (but remember the Vat should not be charged but one may need to pay import sales tax depending on the US state.

 

[cj3209]

So it is actually more expensive to buy from the actual company than from a retail sales ? Does not make any sense. Sure one can bargain to price match HiFi Heaven. (but remember the Vat should not be charged but one may need to pay import sales tax depending on the US state.

I purchased directly from Metrum because I wasn't sure the US sellers had any warranties.

 

[musicfrommemory]

No problem, here you go:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sonnet-digital-audio-new-kid-on-the-block-well-not-really.912400/

I know this is the Pavane thread but just wondering if anyone has ordered the Morpheus and received it yet and any first impressions?

Big thanks

 

[marcelnl]

let's try revive this thread; I currently have an Amethyst, love the sound and am looking to upgrade to a Pavane or Sonnet Morpheus although I HATE (did I say hate already?) paying retail.

However I'm baffled by the differences between the Pavane level 2 and level 3, as I'm strictly playing redbook material and some youtube, no DSD etc I;d say level 2 will do. BUT; what is the background of the difference between level2 and level 3?
the story of 'Broadcast' is BS to me, at least irrelevant

My speaker system is a highly revealing Klangfilm setup a la Bionor, but using three 13.5 inch fullrange speakers per channel, hardly a head phone

 

[gvl2016]

Metrum has never been fully transparent about the differences and technical performance in my opinion. In theory L3 uses 2x number of ladders vs L2 which should help to achieve lower noise floor, but given the lack of posted measurements it's unclear if there's any benefit for Redbook material. I suspect the differences L2/L3 are insignificant for Redbook if the claimed performance matches reality.

 

[marcelnl]

from what I read L2 has the name amount of ladders as L3, but there is a lower sample rate limit. Perhaps I should have a look at the Morpheus...

 

[gvl2016]

My bad, I was thinking L1 vs L3. The gap should be even narrower for L2 L3. Reading between the lines I think L2 just uses less precise latest DAC modules that don't perform up to L3 spec at higher sampling rates. Wish Metrum was more open about it instead of feeding us the Broadcast mambo jambo.

 

[Chopin75]

let's try revive this thread; I currently have an Amethyst, love the sound and am looking to upgrade to a Pavane or Sonnet Morpheus although I HATE (did I say hate already?) paying retail.

However I'm baffled by the differences between the Pavane level 2 and level 3, as I'm strictly playing redbook material and some youtube, no DSD etc I;d say level 2 will do. BUT; what is the background of the difference between level2 and level 3?
the story of 'Broadcast' is BS to me, at least irrelevant

My speaker system is a highly revealing Klangfilm setup a la Bionor, but using three 13.5 inch fullrange speakers per channel, hardly a head phone

Probably not a big difference. There is much less processing power for redbook 16 bit. The main difference for R2R processing is with DXD 24/352 and in an inadequate system it can sound worse than lower Res format.

 

[ken6217]

Well to muddy the waters further, I’ve owned the Pavane Level 3 and was the best DAC I’ve ever owned until I got the Morpheus. Same musical sound but more detail. I never thought I’d replace the Pavane.

 

[marcelnl]

I'll ask Sonnet, see if I can get some clarity. Auditioning both is another option, after all both are located 'at my doorstep'...if it were not for C-19

 

[kumar402]

Not to mention with Morpheus you do get preamp feature as well which is in version of Pavane called Adagio

 

[lithiumnk]

When I had purchased pavane in nov 2018. There was no L2/L3 option on their website. AFAIK there was only one version in Q3'18 i.e. L3.

 

[marcelnl]

Not to mention with Morpheus you do get preamp feature as well which is in version of Pavane called Adagio

True but I don't need one and if so definitely not a solid state pre amp, my tube amp handles the DAC signal beautifully wo pre amp. I was hoping Sonnet will make a DAC without the preamp.

Can it be that prior to a certain date Pavane always was Level1 until the upgrades were offered (DAC2 chips vs DAC1)?

 

[gvl2016]

Can it be that prior to a certain date Pavane always was Level1 until the upgrades were offered (DAC2 chips vs DAC1)?

I believe that is true. Initially there was just Pavane using 16 bit modules w/no levels. Later when 24 bit modules were introduced the original model was designated as L1, and L2/L3 Pavane used the 24 bit DAC2 modules with internal FPGA. Unsure about the exact date when the levels were introduced, but it was about 2-3 years ago.